17 Piano Practice Tips for Adults – A Must Read Guide

In our previous posts, we've given plenty of advice for beginners without really being specific on the age group as those actionable tips will work regardless of your age. But in this post, we focus on several piano practice tips for adults.

Whether you just started in your piano practice or are trying to relearn from your youth, these tips are sure to be beneficial to improving your piano skills.

1) Find the interest

It's human nature to be more engrossed in what we enjoy and not sounding good enough kind of takes away that interest.

Being scared that you won't like what you'd hear would only further discourage you from playing.

Be excited about playing. Just tap into that vibe you once felt about wanting to play so badly and go with the feel, no matter what you hear.

2) Try to set aside an hour each day to see the most improvement.

​Not putting the time in to practice is what holds many back from making improvement.

If it seems too much to work into your daily life that is okay too, try and alternate days to start and maybe spend a little more than an hour to hone your skills.

3) A good warm up is crucial to making improvement.​

Dedicate at good portion of your practice time to strength training your fingers.

Run through scales using hands in unison, focus on using proper finger placements, if you have trouble moving fingers over and under when running scales slow it down and gradually pick up the pace when the movements become second nature.

Work through the scales chromatically.

4) Learn the theory

Though it might seem boring internalizing all the musical terminologies, styles, techniques and what not, it does help to know them. This way when you play it's no longer guess work, you know what exactly you are doing.

Focus on your understanding of theory and ear training to correct any mistakes you may make in Major and Minor scales.

5) Finger placement

Correct finger placement helps the fluidity of your play. Transitions from one note or chord to the other are easier this way.

Starting without knowing this makes it hard to run some scales or hold some chords forcing one to unlearn previous self-taught techniques to learn the ideal method, slowing down progress.

6) Flexing the fingers

Before any playing session, whether practicing or just playing for kicks, do a couple of exercises to loosen up the fingers. Picking a scale and just going up down would suffice. You'd find that when you play afterwards, your fingers are lighter and freer.

7) Practice chords

​Pick one chord or scale for a week and explore. This helps you become familiar. Whenever you play the chord or scale you'd be more relaxed because you know it well.

Practice playing through chords using the five finger pattern. In each key, both Major and Minor, play the five finger pattern, finish in the I chord.

If that is too simple, introduce IV and V chords, the chords will need to be inverted to flow your fingers through the chords easily.

Return to the I chord between playing each chord. Try it in Minor as well.

The quicker your fingers become at transferring between finger placements the better improved your playing will become overall.